2025 Land Rover Defender problems, complaints & recalls
Most-reported problem areas: Visibility/Wiper (7) · Power Train (2) · Steering (1)
🧭 Reliability snapshot
Compared against other Land Rover Defender model years — complaint volume vs the model's median year, recalls and severity. How we score →
Safety recalls (2)
Air Bags:frontal 2026-06-12 · campaign 26V389000 · 250,857 vehicles
Defect: Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC (Land Rover) is recalling certain 2020-2026 Land Rover Defender, 2021-2026 Discovery, and 2022-2026 Range Rover vehicles. The driver’s air bag clockspring connector may corrode, which can cause the air bag not to deploy as intended.
Risk: An air bag that does not deploy as intended increases the risk of injury in a crash.
Fix: Dealers will apply a protective lubricant gel to the driver’s air bag connector terminals, free of charge. Owner letters were mailed August 3, 2026. Owners may contact Land Rover's customer service at 800-637-6837. Land Rover's number for this recall is D120.
Equipment 2024-12-06 · campaign 24E102000 · 485 vehicles
Defect: Jaguar Land Rover North America, LLC (Land Rover) is recalling certain 2020-2025 Land Rover Defender vehicles equipped with Raised Air Intake (RAI) aftermarket accessory equipment, with part number VPLEP0543. The raised air intake may not be secured properly, which can allow the intake to detach from the vehicle.
Risk: A detached raised air intake can fall off the vehicle and become a road hazard, increasing the risk of a crash.
Fix: Dealers will inspect, and if necessary, remove and reinstall the RAI accessory, free of charge. Owner letters were mailed February 20, 2025. Owners may contact Land Rover customer service at 1-800-637-6837. Land Rover's number for this recall is N964.
Service bulletins (190)
Technical service bulletins are repair instructions manufacturers send dealers for known issues. Unlike recalls, the fix is not automatically free — but naming the bulletin at the service desk can save diagnosis time and support goodwill repairs.
Structure:body 2026-09-25 · SSM76493 - 25SEP26 · Other
accessory wheel arch protection - gaps present between protection and vehicle body
Unknown Or Other 2026-09-18 · D048 Defender 18SEP26 · Other
jump start information label missing
Electrical System 2026-08-22 · SSM76110 - 21AUG26 · Other
vehicles on display e.g. in a showroom whilst being supported by a showroom 12v support unit, these vehicles require an additional fuse to be removed to prevent the mhev (48v) battery draining and causing the cells to drop to a non recoverable level. failure to follow this process will void the warr
Unknown Or Other 2026-08-21 · D048 Defender 21AUG26 · Other
jump start information label missing
Unknown Or Other 2026-08-21 · SSM76492 - 20AUG26 · Other
tcu activation failure and incontrol app inoperative after software update
Unknown Or Other 2026-08-21 · SSM76487 - 20AUG26 · Other
air conditioning inoperative / intermittent operation
Showing the 6 most recent of 190 bulletins. Search all of them free at nhtsa.gov.
What owners report
2026-09-10 · Chest Clip, Buckle, Harness“my child was in the car seat and i noticed that the harness was not staying tight. i did research and apparently if a small object and or crumbs gets stuck under the fastener the harness won’t lock in place. i reached out to the manufacturer and they failed to do anything about this. they have no warnings regarding it and did not want to replace it…”
2026-07-14 · Visibility/Wiper“the windshield cracked the 1st week owned the car. land rover didn’t warranty the windshield and have to buy a new one for 2500. the second windshield got a rock chip and now it expanded into a crack over 3 days.…”
2026-05-07 · Visibility/Wiper“i am now on my 4th windshield on my 2025 land rover defender 110. i have had 5 chips/cracks on these windshields. only 1 crack was from a rock that you might expect glass breakage, the others were all caused by small pebble sized road gravel that was more like insect splatter. safelite was repairing 1 very small chip and the windshield cracked duri…”
2026-05-07 · Visibility/Wiper“i am now on my 4th windshield on my 2025 land rover defender 110. i have had 5 chips/cracks on these windshields. only 1 crack was from a rock that you might expect glass breakage, the others were all caused by small pebble sized road gravel that was more like insect splatter. safelite was repairing 1 very small chip and the windshield cracked dur…”
2026-03-23 · Visibility/Wiper“30 years of car ownership have never had a chipped or cracked windshield. 2025 land rover defender has had 3 rock chips in a year and now a 20" crack from very minor impact from a pebble. this windshield has a design flaw and is extremely fragile.…”
2026-03-01 · Visibility/Wiper“driving down the road and my windshield spontaneously cracked. no road debris, no rock, no trauma or accident.…”
2026-02-17 · Steering“while driving on back rd in new hampshire at approximately 30 mph on saturday, feb 14, the vehicle suddenly lost power steering assist and simultaneously shifted into neutral. i received warning messages and immediately lost propulsion. luckily, there was no traffic on the road with me, but that is not always the case on this particular road. i ha…”
2026-02-14 · Power Train“the dc converter went bad and within 30 seconds while driving on the highway i got a battery warning and then the car went into neutral and stopped and went into park and the car turned off in the middle of the road and couldn’t be moved at all. luckily some cops came and protected the car from behind until a tow truck came. the part needed is out …”
2026-01-08 · Unknown Or Other“i had the car while driving loss of power then engine light came on. dealer twice checked and stated no issue until they tested and found that the replacement of the hybrid battery system was issue. i've found this same issue with converter system showing up with others on the facebook 'the new defender owners' group. it seems to be a larger iss…”
Excerpts of consumer complaints filed with NHTSA, lightly truncated. They are owner statements, not verified findings.